Andrew Pudalov spent 15 years working his way up the ladder in the competitive ranks of NYC's financial industry. But the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center changed everything. "I was traumatized. My wife too. We have little kids. I lost good friends. One jumped. I could not believe the towers came down."

Andrew, his spouse and their young family were ready for a change. So they headed west to Boulder, Colorado with very little idea what was ahead. With zero experience in the retail food industry, Andrew started Rush Bowls a company  that specializes in all-natural acai bowls and smoothies.

Over the past 20+ years, the company has grown to over 50 locations across the United States with another 20 stores in development.

What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it?

It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for.

We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge: becoming caregivers for their husbands, both of whom were battling dementia.

There was plenty of information about their husbands’ diagnoses. Doctors were happy to provide them with hordes of information about what to expect as the disease progressed, but nobody was there with practical information about how to be a caregiver for someone with dementia.

Their lived caregiving experience gave Sue and Nancy all the training they needed to make sure nobody else would have to figure it out on their own. That’s when they founded the sensationally popular podcast, The Caregiver’s Journey. Each episode features truly practical advice about how to manage as a caregiver. Topics range from self-care to advice for clipping your loved one’s fingernails. They truly cover it all.

The Caregiver’s Journey has since grown to a powerhouse brand that fills a hugely meaningful gap for anyone who finds themselves having to be a caregiver. The organization was recently granted nonprofit status.

In this episode, Sue and Nancy discuss their former careers, their friendship, and their own personal journeys. It’s at times compelling, heart wrenching and funny, but it’s entirely inspirational and helpful.

To learn more about The Caregiver’s Journey, visit them at thecaregiversjourney.org. And look up “The Caregiver’s Journey” on any podcast app.

*******

If you enjoy Second Act Stories, please leave us a review here. We may read your review on a future episode!

Subscribe to the Second Act stories Substack.

Check out the Second Act Stories YouTube channel.

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Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes.

What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it?

It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for.

We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge: becoming caregivers for their husbands, both of whom were battling dementia.

There was plenty of information about their husbands’ diagnoses. Doctors were happy to provide them with hordes of information about what to expect as the disease progressed, but nobody was there with practical information about how to be a caregiver for someone with dementia.

Their lived caregiving experience gave Sue and Nancy all the training they needed to make sure nobody else would have to figure it out on their own. That’s when they founded the sensationally popular podcast, The Caregiver’s Journey. Each episode features truly practical advice about how to manage as a caregiver. Topics range from self-care to advice for clipping your loved one’s fingernails. They truly cover it all.

The Caregiver’s Journey has since grown to a powerhouse brand that fills a hugely meaningful gap for anyone who finds themselves having to be a caregiver. The organization was recently granted nonprofit status.

In this episode, Sue and Nancy discuss their former careers, their friendship, and their own personal journeys. It’s at times compelling, heart wrenching and funny, but it’s entirely inspirational and helpful.

To learn more about The Caregiver’s Journey, visit them at thecaregiversjourney.org. And look up “The Caregiver’s Journey” on any podcast app.

*******

If you enjoy Second Act Stories, please leave us a review here. We may read your review on a future episode!

Subscribe to the Second Act stories Substack.

Check out the Second Act Stories YouTube channel.

Follow Second Act Stories on social media: Facebook

LinkedIn

Instagram

Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes.

Jonathan Schwartz was at the top of his game serving as a business manager to top stars including Beyonce, Alanis Morisette, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mariah Carey, Linkin Park and others. But this Hollywood insider had a dark secret; he was a compulsive gambler and cocaine addict. And over the course of six years, he embezzled over $7 million from his clients to fund these addictions. Jonathan's criminal behavior earned him a six-year sentence in prison.

When Jonathan returned to society in 2020, he found it almost impossible to get a job. But he went back to school and got a degree in alchol & drug counseling followed by an advanced degree as a therapist. Today, he makes a living as the Director of Programing at Altus Rehab, a top-tier, luxury treament facility in Encino, California.

According to Jonathan, "I make very little money, but it's the happiest I've ever been. Money never brought me happiness. And today, helping people like me with the same in the commonality and the way our brains are wired, it's the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life."

Peggy Rowe has accomplished a lot in her 87 years.

She started her career as a schoolteacher in Baltimore, where she and her husband John – also a teacher – raised three sons. It was a pretty normal life by all accounts. But life got extraordinary somewhere along the way.

One common thread in the Rowe household was humor, and Peggy had a finely tuned ability to recognize funny and write about it. See, writing has always been her creative outlet. She wrote all the time. She wrote fun poems for her students, which she would later hear them recite on the playground; she wrote short stories that were published in newspapers and magazines; she wrote stories about things that happened in everyday life; and she wrote about her family.

Her son Mike (yes, THAT Mike Rowe) loved her stories, but every time she called to share one, he’d tell her, “Mom, don’t TELL me about it; sit down and WRITE about it.” This happened a lot.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Peggy had a wonderful career as an educator, but it wasn’t until long after that came to an end that her real career took off. When she was 80, Peggy’s first book of humor was published. “About My Mother: True Stories of a Horse-Crazy Daughter and Her Baseball-Obsessed Mother: A Memoir” became a New York Times bestseller.

Then came more bestsellers.

“About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known: Ruminations and Revelations from a Desperate Mother to Her Dirty Son” was Peggy’s next bestselling book, when she was 82.

“Vacuuming in the Nude: And Other Ways to Get Attention,” book number three and bestseller number three, was published when Peggy was 84. Judging by the title, it seems Dirty Jobs run in the family.

Her fourth book, “Oh No, Not "The Home": Observations and Confessions of a Grandmother in Transition,” came two years later.

At age 87, Peggy is working on her fifth book and she shows no signs of slowing down. Thankfully.

In this inspiring episode, Peggy shares her incredible journey from the classroom to the bestseller list, complete with a few fun stories woven in.

******* If you enjoy Second Act Stories, please leave us a review here. We may read your review on a future episode!

Subscribe to the Second Act stories Substack.

Check out the Second Act Stories YouTube channel.

Follow Second Act Stories on social media: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram

Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes

With an undergraduate degree from New York University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Jon Malankar joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2018. He climbed the corporate ladder at this top managment consulting firm and became a partner in his mid-30s.

But the bureaucratic burden of working for a large consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients and a strong desire to be more plugged in to his local community ("I felt like a nomad in my hometown"), Jon yearned to be his own boss. After a year of exploration, he opted to become a Mr. Handyman franchise owner in Long Branch, New Jersey. Despite no experience in home repair work, Jon is successfully managing four teams of repair professionals.

According to Jon, "Owning a very local, present, visible, tangible small business really filled up the scorecard for me."

Since her mother taught her to sew at the age of eight, Vanessa Gavin always wanted to be a fashion designer. Throughout high school, she made her own clothes experimenting with different colors, fabrics and patterns. But in college she opted to study biology, went on to get her masters in public health and finally got a degree in medicine.

Now Dr. Vanessa Gavin-Headen, she spent the next 25 years in a rewarding career as a family physician in Long Beach, California.

It was during the Covid-19 pandemic when health professionals started wearing medical scrubs again that Dr. Vanessa returned to her fashion dream by creating a tailored product for "curvy women" in healthcare. Her new company, Valmasi, offers medical scrubs for females with a comfortable fit across the breasts, waist, hips and thighs.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Vanessa and Valmasi.

C. Scott Votaw is the Assistant Vice Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, where he is responsible for overseeing the Georgia Film Academy.

After growing up in Georgia and graduating from college, Scott packed his car and headed west without a plan. With no relevant experience in film and production, he eventually networked his way onto a crew as a runner. Just by being present and paying attention, he found a way to save the production money and was rewarded with an almost immediate promotion to second assistant director.

That auspicious start launched him into what would become an incredibly successful 25-year career in the film and production industry. His big break, a job working for Saban Entertainment on its new and wildly popular Power Rangers television show, set him on a course to work with Hollywood legends including George Lucas and Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt.

Then came his moment of reckoning. After building a career that was largely unplanned, Scott returned home to Georgia to care for a relative and try something new. He eventually networked his way into opportunities in education, but the timing was serendipitous as Georgia was in the process of building the infrastructure to support the growing film industry in the state. Thanks to Scott’s experience in both education and production, and his availability and willingness to take on something new, he found himself in a position to help launch and run the Georgia Film Academy.

In this episode, Scott shares his unplanned journey through the film industry, his tough decision to leave it behind and move back home to Georgia, and the incredible timing that set him on a course to transition from an industry insider to an educator at the highest level.

Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes

Brent Rivard had a long, successful career in advertising, working for major ad agencies in New York and Toronto. But as he entered his 50s, Brent faced an industry that is focused on youth in both it’s work and it’s staffing. The average age of an individual working in advertising is just 29 years old.

Teamed with two advertising executives also in their early 50s, he is in the process of building a groundbreaking agency called “Geezer.” The new company is different from traditional agencies in two major ways:

• Geezer is focused on serving the 50+ market (the most lucrative segment of the population);
• The agency is staffed by seasoned veterans – all with 25+ years of experience in the advertising profession.

According to Brent, “Ageism is a big problem in the advertising agency world and we need to do something about it.”

Click here to learn more about Geezer and their unique approach to advertising.

Justin Farmer is one of the most recognizable people in Atlanta. He spent 17 years as the evening news anchor on WSB-TV, Atlanta’s top-rated news station, and one of the biggest local market news stations in the country. News was a Farmer family business; Justin’s father, Don Farmer, was an ABC news correspondent, a founding CNN anchor, and later the evening news anchor on WSB in Atlanta, a job he held until 1997. Ten years later, Justin landed the same job, at the same station.

But let’s rewind: this all meant that Justin grew up with an inside track to history. While he graduated from Boston College with a degree in political science, his family legacy and several internships at WSB naturally led him to broadcasting. His first TV job was as a sportscaster in Albany, Georgia. But a life in TV news is nomadic, and Justin moved from market to market before eventually landing back home in Atlanta and working for WSB. In 2007, he finally landed at the anchor desk.

Everything was going well until the early 2020s, when in the span of 14 months, Justin lost both his biological parents and his beloved WSB co-anchor, Jovita Moore. This series of traumatic losses caused him to rethink what he wanted from life. He challenged himself to do something different, and his passion for investing and wealth management emerged as his new career goal.

It wasn’t an easy path. Studying for the Series 65 - Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam, is a full-time job itself, but Justin climbed that mountain around his very high-profile full-time job. He passed the first time he took it. Then, on November 26, 2024, he signed off from WSB-TV with three hilarious words and launched Exit Wealth, a private investment firm that works with ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Our interview with Justin happened just weeks after he embarked on his second act. In this episode, Justin shares his history in TV news, some of the fun stories that are always part of live TV, his painful turning point, the thought process behind leaving what appears to be a “cushy” job, and the mountains he had to scale to make his second act a reality.

Learn more about Justin by Googling his name and learn more about Exit Wealth by visiting their website.

Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes